
Gass. 
Book. 



THE NAMELESS CRIME: 



A DISCOURSE, 






DELIVERED IN THE 



FIRST CONSTITUTIONAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 



Sii/iday W8g9a* 9 AprllQ 23, 4335, 



BY REV. H. DUNNING, Pastor. 



jj r i it f t b b g J.I e q u e s t . 



3AI/riMORE .... JOHN W. WOODS, PRINTER, 

202 Baltimore Street. 

1 8G 5. 






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ADDRESS. 



Brethren and Friends : 

Having to speak to you to-night of a crime 
that has no name, it would seem appropriate that my 
discourse should have no text. Let the horrid crime 
itself be my text 

On the last Sabbath morning, it being my first op- 
portunity after the commission of that unparalleled 
crime which deprived the nation of its beloved and 
honored head, I took occasion to speak to you, in 
general terms, of the horrible fact itself which had 
struck the nation dumb by its atrocity. I then gave 
utterance, promptly and decidedly, to the feelings 
which were excited in my own heart by the shocking 

event. 

On Wednesday last, at the hour of the funeral 
solemnities in Washington, while we here, in com- 
mon with the whole nation, were bowed in sympathy 
and sorrow, I took occasion as was most befitting at 
such a time, to speak of some of the more remarka- 
ble characteristics of that great man upon whose 
shoulders God had twice devolved responsibilities, 
greater and weightier than almost ever fell upon 
man; and who had thus been, by the brutal hand of 
violence, snatched away, ere, as it would seem, he 
had finished the work God had given him to do. 

I am now to speak of that nameless crime by which 
the land has been deprived of the honored represent- 



ative of its life and authority ; the people of their 
beloved and trusted President ; and Freedom and 
Humanity of their most faithful friend. I deem it 
my duty at such a time to speak, and to speak in all 
fidelity, irrespective of the favor and the frown of 
men ; and I should speak what I believe the appalling 
occasion bids me speak, though an hundred devils 
stood before me, frowning and forbidding. 

The nameless crime is my theme ; and why do I 
call it a nameless crime? Because there is not in 
our language a word which expresses this horrid 
deed. For killing in almost every form or relation, 
there is a name specific and descriptive : for this there 
is none. It is not homicide ; that term does not by 
any means express the whole of this crime. It is 
not murder ; killing a man "with malice afore- 
thought" does not fill out the measure of this iniquity. 
It is not merely assassination, for here was more 
meant and done than the mere stealthy killing of a 
man. It is not regicide, for our President was no 
king. It is not tyrannicide, for our twice chosen 
head of thirty millions of people, of the people, in 
sympathy with the people, beloved of the people, 
was no tyrant. How then shall we express the as- 
sassination of the elected head of a free nation ? 
There is no word that contains and describes the 
deed. It is only by circumlocution of horrid phrase 
that you can express it. Let it remain a nameless 
deed forever ; a horrid blank in human language. 
Of this nameless crime, who can describe its atrocity 
and ivickedness ? Look at the spirit which generated 
and accomplished the deed. It is the spirit of rebel- 
lion, of rebellion against divinely constituted author- 
ity and law. The Bible teaches us that government 



is of God : "The powers that be are ordained of God" 
Human government therefore finds its basis, support, 
strength and authority in God. Resistance to a di- 
vinely constituted government is therefore resistance 
to God. "Whosoever resisteth the power, resisteth the 
ordinance of God" Now the spirit of this crime is 
the spirit of rebellion intensified to the highest pos- 
sible degree. It strikes not only at the representa- 
tive of government, but at the authority of govern- 
ment ; and through the representative, at those he 
represents ; and through them, at all government it- 
self; and through government, at God, the author of 
government. The spirit of this crime first developed 
itself in heaven. There it struck at God, and could it 
have realized its malignant purpose, it would have 
dethroned and have annihilated God. 

The spirit of this crime is the animating spirit of 
all sin. Its aim is the destruction of all government, 
human and divine. It would annihilate God, and de- 
vastate the universe. And this reveals to us the ap- 
palling enormity of this nameless crime. 

And when we consider the relations existing between 
the victim of this crime and the criminal 'himself its 
atrocity reveals itself in still darker colors. This 
blow, be it remembered, was not aimed at Abraham 
Lincoln, the man, the citizen, the individual, but at 
Abraham Lincoln the President. The assassin had 
no hatred of the man, perhaps no living being had ; 
but of the President, and because he teas President. 
But the President, as such, is only the representative 
of national life and authority. He is the nation em- 
bodied. The blow then was aimed at the nation, the 
life and heart of the nation, and could it have real- 
ized its horrid malignity in desired result, it would 



6 

have annihilated not only the government, but the 
nation whose embodied life the government is. 

Now, the intense malignity and enormity of the 
crime reveals itself in the fact that its perpetrator 
was living at the time only on the forbearance and 
leniency of the President. He openly professed to 
be, he was publicly known to be an enemy of the 
government whose protection he enjoyed, whose pro- 
tection he was base enough to continue to enjoy and 
to abuse for its attempted destruction ! Yet, though 
thus known as a declared enemy, he was spared and 
protected from judgment by the misplaced forbear- 
ance of that government against which he lifted his 
assassin hand, and at which he aimed this deadly 
blow ! His freedom and life as a declared enemy of 
government, in this hour of its great struggle for con- 
tinued existence and authority, had both been for- 
feited. He was permitted the enjoyment of both by 
the too great leniency of the President. That len- 
iency he outraged by the murder of him that showed 
it ! If anything can show the hideous enormity of 
this crime, and its desert of a double damnation, this 
fact reveals it. 

But its criminality is still further enhanced, by the 
fact, that, its noble victim was, at the time medita- 
ting an amnesty to all the thousands who had been 
engaged in long and bitter strife against the govern- 
ment of which he was the twice chosen representa- 
tive and executive, and who were, just in this hour 
of victory, wholly in his power. At such a time, when 
clemency, when forgiveness, when an earnest desire 
to assuage the bitterness engendered by this unhal- 
lowed and conquered rebellion ruled in the heart of 
this good man ; at such a time, in contradiction to 



every impulse of gratitude or generosity, this fear- 
ful deed was done ! It was in wicked harmony in- 
deed with the base ingratitude of them who had been 
nursed at the bosom of the republic, but who had 
striven to drive the assassin's dagger to her maternal 
heart. 

And then too tchat blindness, what stupidity what 
desperate infatuation in this crime ! What could it 
accomplish now for the cause it was designed to aid ? 
Had it been committed four years ago, it might have 
been extenuated by the wicked plea of the aid it 
would render to the then newly inaugurated rebel- 
lion ; but now it can have no such diabolic justifica- 
tion ; on the contrary, it is manifest that nothing 
could operate so seriously to the detriment of their 
cause who had already, whether willingly or unwill- 
ingly, submitted to the government. Nothing could 
have been done which will so certainly cement, weld, 
intensify, and augment the loyality of the nation. A 
hundred victories could not have produced such a re- 
sult. The blindness, the infatuation of the deed are 
astounding. How does iniquity overleap itself, and 
perish in its folly ! 

The question now here arises, and it is one which 
will be long pondered by the world, and which must 
have an answer, how could this deed have been done ? 
ffoio could this crime have been committed ? 

We are now too near the commission of the hor- 
rid crime itself to answer this question fully. But in 
part you may see the explanation of the possibility 
and the fact of its commission in the well known life 
and character of the assassin. His long practice in 
theatric displays and mock crimes and tragedies had 
made him insensible to the guilt of real crimes. It 



3 



had doubtless given birth to the feeling that it would 
furnish a sort of grand theatric display before the 
world ; that it would be a grand tragedy, enacted 
upon a grand scale in real life, the victim of which, 
should fall from the most exalted seat of power, 
the auditory of which should be the world, and 
the chief actor therein, as the assassin himself de- 
scribed it, should win for himself immortal fame. 

Smitten, perhaps, with an accursed ambition for 
such fame, long cherishing the spirit which has in- 
flamed the heart and nerved the arm of this rebel- 
lion from the beginning ; harboring the most deadly 
hostility towards the government, whose representa- 
tive the President was ; long brooding over the dark 
iniquity, and plotting it with his co-conspirators ; 
urged on by those who were engaged in the same 
diabolic effort against the nation's life on a grander 
and more open and acknowledged scale ; thus exci- 
ted, stimulated, urged on, restrained by no moral or 
religious influences ; dissuaded, withheld alas ! by no 
kind friend ; finding only unhallowed stimulation in 
the drinking saloon and in the brothel ; fired by the 
demon spirit of that institution which the rebel Hunter 
declared was the cause of the whole rebellion, whose 
friend and defender he was ; thus animated and 
urged ; and thus unhappily unrestrained ; this young 
man at length, after many purposed attempts, found 
strength of diabolic purpose with which to strike the 
fatal blow. To a certain extent this would seem to 
account for the crime. In our horror of the deed, 
we may exclaim, of the suspected criminal, in words 
with which he must have been familiar, and which, 
perhaps with tragic strut across the stage, he had 
often quoted: 



"Beyond the infinite and boundless reach 

Of mercy, if thou didst this, this deed of death, 

Art iliou damned." 

And what a lesson have we here to the young and 
to all upon the influence of theatric displays and of 
the theatric spirit. The performing and the witness- 
ing of fictitious crimes, prepares the heart for the 
commission of real crimes. 

And what a startling exhibition have we here of 
the depravity of the human heart. This crime proves 
to us that there is no conceivable enormity of wick- 
edness ; no height or depth of possible iniquity 
which does not lie concealed in the human heart. 
You have only to excite the sleeping serpent in 
every bosom ; only to awaken and arouse the pas- 
sions there slumbering ; only to present the proper 
infernal motives ; to stimulate by the proper excite- 
ments ; to withdraw restraints, and it will strike at 
the heart of God himself. We may start in horror, 
shocked at such a suggestion, and like the young 
courtier of Damascus exclaim, in affected or real in- 
nocence of evil intent, "What ! is thy servant a dog, 
that he should do this thing !" but, like Hazael, the 
assassin, we may discover, when too late, the strength 
of the evil and the weakness of the good within us. 
We are startled at the enormity of these crimes 
against human government, and it is well that we are ; 
portentious would the sign be if we were not ; but 
this is only a repetition of what is daily attempted 
against the divine government. Rebellion against 
God is an attempt to destroy the government of God ; 
and sin against God strikes a blow at his existence. 

This huge crime is but the development of that 
evil spirit which lies in all our hearts. Unrestrained 



10 

by education and by the providence and the grace of 
God, we are all assassins. Let us not cease then to 
thank God for his protection in the past, and to pray 
for restraining grace in the future. "But for the grace 
of God" exclaimed John Bunyan, as he saw a de- 
graded wretch lying in the street, "But for the grace 
of God, there lies John Bunyan, and so may we say, 
"But for tlw grace of God, I am that assassin; I am 
that fugitive from justice, accursed of God, and loathed 
and feared by men !" Let us then incessantly praise 
and pray for that restraining grace. 

And have you not observed, my friends, how God 
in his providence is here presenting a test of character 
to this whole nation ? "As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he. He who approves this deed, who "in 
his heart" rejoices in it, or palliates or excuses it ; he 
who does not find his whole moral nature abhor and 
revolt at it, is himself, shall I add herself, an assassin. 
He or she only needs the opportunity, the withdrawal 
of restraints by God, the proper stimulation and 
hardihood, to strike again to the heart of our present 
President. If you hear a man palliate or excuse that 
deed, never trust yourself alone or in a dark night 
with him. Neither your reputation, nor your charac- 
ter, nor your life would be safe with him. He that 
approves or excuses a crime committed, is himself, 
in the sight of God, guilty of that crime, and at the 
bar of God must answer for it. Here then, we say, 
God is applying a test of character to every man and 
woman in this nation, and to his unerring eye there 
is revealed by this test, who is a murderer, who is an 
assassin and who is not. "Be ye not partakers of other 
men's sins." 

Finally, let us thank God that though this blow 



11 



was aimed at the life of this nation, the nation still 
lives, and it is all the more vividly and intensely alive, 
because of this its sore bereavement. No dagger's 
point can reach its life. You may take its chosen 
head away, but still it lives, and will live, though an 
hundred Presidents die. 

"In all the centuries we can find but two or three 
equal calamities. Assassinations indeed there have 
been of sovereigns, ministers, but in not more than 
two or three instances has a ruler been taken whose 
person seemed so vital to the State ; yet never did 
the loss prove fatal to the country. CLesar was 
stabbed in the senate house — yet Rome lived even 
after the mighty Julius fell. Henry IV, the great- 
est of the Kings of France, was stabbed in the streets 
of Paris, by a hired assassin. But though he died, 
his country was still great and powerful. But a 
heavier calamity it was which struck down William, 
Prince of Orange, nearly 300 years ago, for the little 
State of Holland seemed to rest on his single arm, 
and when he fell, it seemed as if he carried down the 
hopes of his country into the same grave. But God 
was a wall of fire round about them. So when the 
great Gustavus Adolphus fell, not by an assassin, 
but, in battle, it seemed as if it were a blow fatal to 
the cause of Protestanism in Europe. But the same 
being who nerved the arm of Gustavus, raised up 
other defenders. Thus men die, but nations live. 
And so we cannot doubt it will prove here. The 
God of our father who has led us through all the 
dark periods of our history, will still be our protec- 
tor and guide." — N. Y. Evangelist. 

And let us, in this day of our national humiliation 
and sorrow, by the contemplation of the enormity 



12 



and horror of this crime, learn to hate and loathe and 
pray constantly for deliverance from all crime and all 
wrong. Let us cultivate a deeper and broader and 
more sacred respect for all lawful authority. Let us 
instill into the minds of the young a spirit of rever- 
ence for and obedience to all lawful authority and 
government. Let us teach them the sin against God, 
which lies in resistance to that government ; the crime 
before God and man of them that would destroy that 
government ; and the unspeakable enormity and 
guilt of this crime which has struck the world aghast 
with norror, and smitten the national heart with an 
incurable grief. Let us teach them the most sacred 
dutjr of praying for their rulers, though even their spir- 
itual guides set them not the example ; and that they 
that refuse thus to do, not only disobey God, but 
condemn themselves of the unutterable meanness of 
consenting to receive and to enjoy the protection of 
a government, which they hate and would destroy. 
And let us see in this great and appalling overflow 
of crime the permissive providence of God, who for wise 
reasons, now as always, has permitted so great an in- 
iquity, not because he could not have prevented it, 
but because he intends out of so great evil to bring 
forth good to this nation, and glory to himself. 

Let us remember that, "He will mahe the wrath of 
man to praise him" and the remainder thereof he will 
restrain. — Amen. 



